Edward (Ned) Debold

Associate Professor

Research areas include cellular dynamics.

Current ResearchMuscle generates the force and motion required to power a wide range of important tasks, from walking to the pumping of blood by the heart. The ability to accomplish these tasks is ultimately derived from the nano-scale motions of muscle’s motor enzyme, myosin in a process powered by the energy from ATP. During muscle fatigue this process is transiently disrupted dramatically reducing the force and power that muscle can produce. In clinical populations, such as individuals with heart failure or COPD this drastically limits functionality and quality of life. Our lab is focused on both identifying the molecular basis of this compromised function as well as identifying potential approaches to attenuate or even reverse this transient loss of muscle function. In related work we are also focused on identifying the mechanisms underlying the disruption of the force and motion generating capacity ofheart in genetic forms cardiomyopathies that result from point mutations in contractile proteins of the myocardium. Our approach to these questions is to examine the impact of putative agents of muscle fatigue or point mutations in contractile proteins on the mechanics and kinetics of muscle myosin using a powerful combination of advanced biophysical techniques including the single molecule using a laser trap assay.